Birmingham’s burgeoning culinary reputation is set to be further enhanced after plans for a ‘foodie’ hub in the heart of one of the city’s smartest suburbs were unveiled.
Neil Edginton, who is director at The Cube, wants to transform the old Victorian school with its distinctive clock tower on Harborne High Street into a mixed use scheme with up to three restaurants, a cookery school, a public square and 10 luxury apartments.
The Clock Tower building - which has been under scaffolding for more than 18 months because of structural problems - is owned by Birmingham City Council, which chose Mr Edginton’s company EDG Properties in an open competition to develop the site.
“It is very exciting to have been selected to develop this historic site in one of the city’s most sought after areas,” said Mr Edginton, who has been working with Bob Ghosh from K4 Architects.
“For the last couple of years we have been looking at opportunities in the city and this is undoubtedly one with the most potential.
"We are now looking forward to working with the local community and the wider city before taking our ideas to planning and hopefully delivering a scheme that everyone can be proud of.”
Under the proposals a new food school would be created called ‘Kitchen’ which would work in partnership with University College Birmingham and signature chefs from across the city to create a ‘community interest company’ that would be open to customers who wanted to learn from award-winning chefs to groups of children from local schools.
Jayne Bradley, from Kitchen, said: “It is predicted that by 2030, 60 per cent of children in the UK will be obese.
"The food agenda and its direct link to the health of the nation is now nationally recognised at the highest level. Kitchen has been established to bring a new dimension to Birmingham, offering routes to good food and top chefs through teaching food skills.
"We believe Kitchen will be held up as an exemplar around the country and are delighted to be launching in Harborne.”
David Colcombe, spokesman for the Birmingham Chefs Alliance, said the new development was a “fantastic” addition to the city’s growing food culture.
